This invention relates to a frame for supporting a lawn bag or trash bag. In particular, the invention concerns a frame for maintaining the mouth of the bag open to facilitate collecting leaves and lawn debris, for example.
Large plastic bags, such as lawn bags or trash bags, are widely used for collecting and discarding leaves, grass trimmings, and other lawn debris. However, since these bags are extremely pliable, it is often difficult for a single person to hold the mouth of the bag open and to rake leaves or debris into the bag or fill it in some other manner.
Some attempts have been made to provide frames for temporarily supporting the bag with the mouth open. In some such attempts, the bag is vertically supported, such as shown in the patent to Haubrich, U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,083. One difficulty with this approach is that the leaves, grass trimmings or lawn debris must be lifted from the ground into the bag opening.
In another approach, a framework is provided which permits the bag to rest on the ground for directly loading leaves into the mouth of the bag. For example, the patent to Ringer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,653, shows a generally triangular frame which is engaged within the mouth of the bag. However, the Ringer device does not include any means for fixing the bag or frame on the ground but instead relies on a handle which can be held by a person while the debris is being raked into the bag. Other patents show a construction which incorporate means for staking the frame to the ground. For instance, the patents to D'Antonio et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,415 and Hayes et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,103, show a framework that includes a ground-engaging bar with openings for inserting a peg or stake to secure the bar to the ground. The patent to Martin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,521, shows another framework in which spikes which are normally concealed within the framework are extendable to engage the ground. However, each of these ground-engaging devices require a fairly complicated multiple-piece framework.
There remains a need for a simple framework construction for supporting a lawn bag with the bag mouth open. The framework must have means for fixing the bag to the ground to permit "hands-off" filling of the bag.